Nursing & Health Survival Guide: Essential Clinical Skills, Research Paper Example

Nurses possess a responsibility to adapt in all situations as needed in order to accommodate changes in the environment and in a patient’s health status. Therefore, a vast knowledge base and support system must be in place in order to achieve these objectives. At the same time, nurses must also make quick decisions regarding a patient’s vital signs for which they rely upon a steady stream of existing knowledge and resources to make decisions that will not disrupt the patient’s overall plan of care. Nurses must be able to hold their own under a variety of circumstances, and this includes determining whether or not to change specific care plans if vital signs are significantly altered. With this in mind, there must be a greater emphasis on maintaining survival mode and supporting a level of consistency within the practice environment that trickles down to patients in different ways (Carlisle, 2014). Nurses must be consistent in their efforts to treat patients and to rely upon prior evidence to support these objectives, while also considering the standards of care that are adopted in different settings, such as emergency departments, as a means of moving forward to improve patient care and treatment.

Nurses must be able to assess a variety of situations and utilize tasks such as shift handoff to support patient needs and to remain consistent in their decision-making capabilities (Cairns, Dudjak, Hoffmann, & Lorenz, 2013). It is necessary to emphasize the value of patient care experiences in advancing nurse decision-making and in adhering to established principles, rather than to defer from the charted course of action and pose additional risks for patients. Consistency and adherence to established guidelines must be the norm; therefore, this enables nurses to utilize their wealth of knowledge and experience in order to support patients and to refrain from optimal standards of care that have been proven to be valuable for patients. There must be a delicate balance in place that will engage nurses and enable them to remain focused on the tasks at hand, rather than to make changes that could ultimately compromise the lives of these patients if they are unsuccessful.

References

Cairns, L. L., Dudjak, L. A., Hoffmann, R. L., & Lorenz, H. L. (2013). Utilizing bedside shift report to improve the effectiveness of shift handoff. Journal of Nursing Administration, 43(3), 160-165.

Carlisle, S. (2014). Nursing & Health Survival Guide: Essential Clinical Skills. Routledge.